Beginning of the End
by gingerr1
Summary: A new story about ELi and Grace and the rest of the gang.
1. Chapter 1

**Eli is sitting at the kitchen table, slurping a coffee and slightly moaning. Grace walks in, glances at Eli and rolls her eyes. She opens a cupboard, takes out a mug and slams the door shut. Eli moans at the sound. **

"**So who was your prey last night? Some blonde with a six inch heals or a brunette with her cleaving shoved in your face?"**

**Eli gets up from the table and starts to leave the room.**

"**I hope you'll believe me one day and realise that I've changed," he murmurs.**

**Grace looks down at her hands and bites her lip. **

"**I do…" she whispers.**

**Eli spins around and looks at Grace. **

"**You do?" he asks suspiciously. **

**Grace slightly nods her head and half smiles. **

"**But, you were so bitter the other night when I didn't show up to your play. And just now, you accused me of pickin' up some random chick.**

**Grace sits down at the table and gestures to the seat next to her. Eli sits down and looks at his hands. **

"**I know I was, and I'm still upset, but it's easier for me to get over it than to dwell on it, because…because…"**

**Grace goes silent and Eli gently places his hand on hers. She turns her head and looks at him.**

"**Grace…"**

"**I know that I could never be with a guy like you, Eli. And the sooner I realise that, the better."**

**Grace tries to get up from her seat but Eli keeps his hand on hers and looks up at her. **

"**Grace…"  
**

"**What Eli? You keep saying my name and never finishing your sentences. You've got a mouth, use it," she nearly yells at him and then bites her lip with regret.**

**B/W Grace: who the hell am I?**

**Eli stands up and places his hands on her shoulders.**

"**A guy like me doesn't deserve a girl like you. You deserve a guy who will show up when it counts."**

**Grace looks into Eli's eyes and Eli runs his hand along her cheek. **

"**I'm sorry, Grace. I'm sorry I let you down."**

**Grace nods her head slowly and takes hold of his hand which is still placed on her cheek. **

"**Well, when you're ready to show up, I'll be waiting," she whispers and moves her hand away. **

**Grace leaves the kitchen and Eli remains standing where he is, frozen in thought.**

**B/W Eli: being able to show up isn't that easy, but it's something I gotta do.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter two is now done and ready to be read. **

**Chapter two**

**Jessie is sitting at a table in the cafeteria and is picking at her salad, not really eating anything. Katie and Tad are walking towards the table bickering about the night before.**

"**You're such a sleaze. You've shown no interest in Sam before and yet as soon as she looks your way you become her little puppy dog."**

"**Crap," Tad yells and throws a chip at Katie. Katie ducks and the chip lands on Jessie's plate. **

**B/W Jessie: I would do anything for a chip…(Jessie holds the chip between her fingers and throws it away with disgust).**

"**Jess, you shoulda seen his eyes. They just bulged outta his sockets and he fell over his feet. He woulda eaten his left foot if she told him to."**

**Tad grumbles and takes a bite of his burger. Jessie laughs half heartedly and goes back to playing with her salad. **

"**So, since the two of you are in your own little worlds, I'm just gonna chat to chat to myself," Katie talks to herself.**

"**You looked amazing last night, Kate. Your ass looked so hot in that mini skirt and that low cut top was so see-through that everyone could see your third nipple," Katie rambles on as she munches away at her chips.**

**Tad spits out the juice in his mouth and starts to cough. Katie and Jessie laugh together and Katie slaps Tad on the back.**

"**I guess I have your attention now," she laughs and Tad and Jessie glance at each other.**

**B/w Jessie: I wish I was as confident as Katie (wistful smile). **

**Katie goes back to eating her chips and Tad glances at Jessie as she looks down at her plate with a frown on her face. **

**B/w Tad: She's so intense. What kinda guy could ever handle her? (breathes out and shakes his head in awe) Yet, there's somethin' about her that turns me on.**

**Tad takes a sip of juice and hesitates before speaking.**

"**So Jessie…why didn't you come last night?" he asks, trying to sound as casual as possible.**

**Katie holds back a laugh.**

**B/w Katie: Gawd, guys are so obvious! They might as well have big L's tattoed onto their foreheads. **

**Jessie continues to play with her food and doesn't look up when she replies.**

"**I, uh, was busy…homework and stuff," she mumbles. **

**Katie takes notice of Jessies shyness and smiles softly.**

"**That's my girl…always studying, never having a break. You and me need to take her out one night and have our way with her, right Tad," she smirks and nudges his arm.**

**Tad blushes slightly and covers it up with a laugh. **

**B/w Tad: Katie always has a way of making a situation awkward. I have no idea how we ended up as friends (laughs awkwardly). **

**Jessie and Tad go back to eating their food and Katie just shakes her head and laughs.**

**(next section)**

**Mr Dimitri shuts his diary and stands up from his chair. He looks around at the students and smiles. **

"**We had a wonderful run this year and I am proud of each and every one of you."**

**Grace smiles slightly but keeps her eyes focused on her desk. **

"**And because of all your hard work, the school has decided to organise a special party for all of you."**

**Everybody starts to talk and yell out in approval. Grace and Julie smile at each other.**

"**And you are all allowed to bring partners," Mr Dimitri adds.**

**Julie winks at Grace.**

"**I am so inviting James to the party."**

**Grace offers an encouraging smile but then looks down at her desk and bites her lip.**

**B/w Grace: as if any guy would want to go to the dance with me (she sighs and turns away from the camera). **

"**You could always ask Kip. I know that he's got a thing for you," Julie suggests.**

"**Kip? He's got an annoying lisp and he always smells of BO."**

**Julie laughs and shakes her head in amusement. **

**B/w Grace: even my friends don't think I can get a guy (sighs). **

"**The party is on the 27th, in four weeks time. The theme is Romeo and Juliet and you shall all dress up, including your partners."**

**Julie pretends to swoon and the class laughs. Grace pokes her arm and laughs as well. The school bell rings and everyone starts to get up.**

"**If you are bringing a partner you must sign up in order to arrange the right amount of food and beverages. If you want to help out with arrangements please sign up. The sheets are up on the notice board in the hallway. See you tomorrow."**

**Mr Dimitri picks up his books and leaves the room. Grace and Julie take their time getting to their next class. Eli and a group of his friends are walking towards them. Grace blushes a little and looks away. Eli coughs a little and gets his friends to stop walking.**

"**Hey Grace, Julie."**

**Grace and Julie reply and get ready to keep on walking but Eli coughs again as he notices Mr Dimitri putting the notices up.**

"**Ah, so you guys are having a dance?"**

"**Great. A group of drama geeks quoting Shakespear and sipping apple juice," Cooper laughs and Eli nudges him to shut up. **

"**That's us. Drama geeks," mutters Grace. **

**Grace indicates to Julie that they should keep going and Eli sighs.**

"**Well, uh, see you guys later," he says half-heartedly. **

**Once the girls move on Cooper looks at Eli in disbelief.**

"**What the hell was that about?" he says with disgust. **

"**What was what?"**

"**You being nice to your step-sister and her geeky drama friend."**

"**We live together. We kinda have to get on together. And her friend isn't that bad looking."**

"**Yeah, if she got a boob job and gained a personality," laughs Cooper and the other laugh along.**

"**Forget it," mutters Eli and walks off. **

"**Common man, I was just kiddin'."**

**Eli waves his hand and keeps on walking. Cooper looks at his friends and they all shrug.**

**(next section)**

Grace is sitting in the school courtyard under a tree. She is covering her face with her hands and the tears are pouring onto her lap. Eli notices her in the distance and stands for a minute before he walks over. 

**B/w Eli: it hasn't even been a day and I've already screwed up whatever chance I had with Grace. **

**Grace looks up and sees him standing there motionless. She wipes away her tears and waits for him to make a move. He walks over and sits down next to her. He wipes away a tear with his finger and puts his hands into his lap. **

"**I'm a jerk."**

**Grace looks down at her hands.**

"**Yes, you are."**

"**My friends expect me to act in a certain way and it's hard…"**

"**What's hard, Eli?"**

**Eli plays with a blade of grass and avoids looking at her. Cooper and a few others are standing at the opposite end of the courtyard.**

"**It's hard to show the real me when I'm with them."**

**Eli throws the blade of grass away and turns to face Grace. **

"**Well, it's hard for me when you show the fake you or whatever you want to call it," she blurts out and a tear drop. **

**Cooper and the guys are looking over at Eli and Grace, wondering what's going on and pointing at them. **

**B/w Eli: there's always that point in life where if you don't make a move then it's just not gonna happen.**

**Eli takes a deep breath, places a hand on Grace's shoulder and leans in towards her. Grace turns to him and Eli places his mouth on hers. **


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter three**

**Grace opens her eyes with shock and looks into Eli's eyes.**

"**Why'd do you that?" she blurts out. **

**Eli runs his hand through his hair and thinks for a second.**

"**Because I wanted to show you…" he wanders off in thought.**

"**Show me what?" she prods him. **

"**That I'll show up when it counts," he smiles and Grace blushes a little.**

**Cooper and the guys continue to talk about Eli and Grace and Eli looks over at them.**

"**I'm impressed Eli. You kissed me when you knew your friends would be cruel."**

"**I guess your maturity is rubbing off on me," he jokes lightly but still looks at his friends.**

**Grace slowly edges her hand to his and takes hold of it. **

"**It means a lot to me," she whispers and squeezes his hand.**

**Eli turns to look at Grace and smiles. Grace smiles back at him and moves into kiss him. **

**(next section)**

**It is just before dinner and Zoe is setting up the kitchen table and Lily is at the stove finishing off the spaghetti sauce. Rick wanders into the kitchen and takes a beer out of the fridge.**

"**So ladies, did you have a good day?"**

"**I had a fight with Lisa because she thinks Zac likes me. Which he does, but she blames me for that. Can I help it if she annoys him?" Zoe slams the plates on the table and lets out a huff. **

**Lily and Rick exchange a look and Rick ruffles Zoe's hair. Lily indicates to the stove.**

"**Rick, please drain the spaghetti and carry the sauce to the table. Zoe call the others to the table."**

**Zoe runs to the end of the staircase.**

"**Guys get your butts down here, dinner's ready!"**

**Grace runs downstairs. Her face is flushed and her hair is all over the place. She also has to button up her shirt. Zoe looks at her suspiciously.**

"**What happened to you?"**

"**Cram it, Zoe," Grace mutters as she ties up her hair.**

**B/w Zoe: One day Grace is going to regret the way she treated me (slams her fist into her hand and smiles evilly).**

**Jessie walks into the kitchen and looks at the table. Sighing slightly, she pours herself some water and takes a big gulp. **

**Rick kisses Jessie on the head and squeezes her. **

"**How was your day, pumpkin?"**

"**Fine, Dad. Nothing special happened," she shrugs and takes another gulp of water.**

"**That's good, dear…" he replies without really taking in what she said. **

**Jessie sighs again and goes to sit down at the table.**

"**Jess, what's taking your brother so long?" asks Lily. **

**Jessie shrugs just as Eli runs into the kitchen. He is doing up his belt and he quickly fixes up his hair.**

"**Uh, I fell asleep, sorry," he mumbles. **

**Grace and Eli exchange glances and Eli lets out a breath of air and smiles. Grace giggles and then stops herself by coughing. Zoe eyes Grace suspiciously again. **

**B/w Zoe: she thinks she's so superior. One day I'll be the one with the superior look (smug grin). **

**Everybody joins Jessie at the kitchen table and Lily begins to serve everyone. Eli and Grace are sitting next to each other and every once in a while their hands touch. Everybody else is talking about their days, oblivious to what is going on.**

**B/w Grace: Who would have thought that the school's hottest guy would ever be interested in me? And who would have thought we would be flirting at the kitchen table?**

**(next section)**

**Jessie is standing naked in the bathroom with her hands held against her stomach.**

**B/w Jessie: I look awful.**

**She turns to the side and pokes her stomach.**

**B/w Jessie: No wonder Tad doesn't like me. I'm so ugly.**

**Jessie ties her hair up and leans over the toilet seat. She places a finger in her mouth and starts to cough.**

**(next section)**

**Eli is lying on his bed, flicking through a magazine and watching some random sitcom. He hears a knock on the door and switches off the tv.**

"**Yeah," he yells.**

"**Ah, it's me, Grace."**

**Eli puts down the magazine.**

"**Come in," he replies, trying to sound casual.**

**Grace opens his bedroom door and there she stands wearing a low cut light blue silk nightgown and white fluffy slippers. Her hair is pinned up at the back with a few strands framing her face. **

"**Hey," she whispers.**

"**Hey…"**

"**I, uh, just wanted to say thanks for what you did today. It took guts to do that in front of your friends."**

**Eli shrugs.**

"**Anyway, I'll leave you alone I guess. Thanks again," she says and dawdles at the doorway. **

"**Grace, wait."**

**Eli jumps up from the bed and grabs her hand. He brings her back to the bed and they sit down.**

"**What I did today wasn't to prove something to Cooper and the guys. I mean, yeah, I wanted to do that but I also wanted to prove to you that I'm serious about…about us."**

**Grace bites her lip and looks down at her lap. Still holding her hand, Eli picks it up and kisses it softly. He then lifts his head up ad moves in closer towards Grace's neck. Moving her hair away, he softly kisses her collar bone and Grace can't help but shudder. Still holding her hand, Eli pulls her backwards and they end up lying down on the bed. **

**B/w Grace: I, uh, never….um…ah…argh, I've forgotten what I wanted to say (smiles slightly and falls down into a couch).**

"**Eli, I'm not ready to do…you know…"**

**Eli removes a strand of hair away from her face.**

"**That's fine. Do you mind if we just lie here for the night?" he asks softly as he kisses her on the mouth.**

**Grace smiles and wraps one arm around his chest and lays her head on his shoulder.**

"**I'd like that," she murmurs as she closes her eyes.**

**Eli pulls the blanket over them and turns off his bedside lamp. As he closes his eyes he smiles slightly.**

**B/w Eli: man, I never wanna get out of bed. **


	4. Chapter 4

_Grace is lying on the couch in the family room, pretending to read a magazine and occasionally looking up at the tv. Every few minutes she quickly glances over at the door to the garage and bites her lip. She is waiting for Eli to come home from rehearsal so that she can make a point of being mean to him, while really all she wants is for Eli to wrap his arms around her so that she can press her head against his chest. _

_Over the last two weeks Grace has noticed a change in Eli. Sure, before that incident she already had a thing for Eli, but then when he told her that he was working on his music, it reminded her why she fell for him in the first place. _

_Whenever Eli played his guitar and wrote lyrics, his brovado went out the window and he opened up his heart. His true thoughts came out and he didn't seem to care that his friends found it a little girlie. He would discuss his lyrics with Jessie and would share his new tunes with Zoey when she went to bed. This was the Eli that Grace had fallen in love with. _

_But this Eli never stuck around for long. Whenever he met a new girl he would lose interest in writing new songs and would stop talking to Jessie, Zoey and Grace. He would spend all his time in the garage with the girl, playing loud music and doing God knows what. He would pin the girls photo up on his bedroom wall and when he wasn't with her he would be in his bedroom, listening to loud music and doing God knows what on his own. He would take the girls to school in the morning but would always forget about them in the afternoon and just assumed Grace would look after Zoey even though Grace sometimes had to stay back for play practice. _

_This was the Eli Grace couldn't stand and she would avoid him like the plague. But when he broke up with the girl, out would come the guitar and he would notice the girls once again. Two weeks ago in his bedroom when Eli and Grace had that moment, she remembered why she liked him and was willing to give him one last chance. Then again, seeing those photos on his wall reminded her that he would never really leave the old Eli behind. _

_Grace hears the garage door slam shut and she quickly looks at the magazine. Eli walks into the room, notices she is lying on the couch and he hesitates before he sits down on the seat next to her. Neither of them say anything at first and Eli looks at the screen. Grace continues to look through the magazine and they both wait for the other one to crack. _

_Eli coughs but Grace makes a point of not looking up at him. He coughs again and starts to splutter. She finally cracks and looks over at Eli and he can't help but smirk. _

_"Jerk," she mutters. _

_"You know you love me," he laughs._

_Grace gets up from the couch and starts to leave the room. Eli jumps up after her and grabs her arm._

_"Wait..."_

_"What is it, Eli? Grace barks as she turns to face him. His hand is still holding her arm and it is taking everything that she has inside her not to stroke his hand. _

_"It's just...it's just that I hate us not talking. It's killing me, Grace," he whispers. _

_She lets her eyes look into his eyes and she begins to let her guard down. _

_"It's killing me too," she admits reluctantly. _

_Eli moves his hand down her arm and takes hold of her hand. Grace sighs and squeezes his hand. _

_"Can't we work this out?" he asks. _

_"I don't know..."_

_"What can I do?"_

_Grace shrugs and they stand facing each other, looking into each others eyes and they can see the longing that they are both feeling. _

_"Can we do this?" she whispers. _

_Eli pushes a strand of her hair behind her ear and looks into her eyes. _

_"We can try..."_

_Ge leans down towards her and she closes her eyes. Their lips meet and Eli can feel Grace shiver against him. He wraps his arm around her back as he lets his tongue enter her mouth. _

_Grace allowed herself to forget about the Eli she didn't like and focused on the Eli she could respect and love. As she felt his tongue touch hers she let out a sigh of excitement. _

_This was the sort of moment Grace had been hoping for for such a long time that she felt like she was in one of her dreams and any moment now some other chick was going to walk in on them, wink at Eli and he would run after them. _

_"Eli..." _

_Eli murmurs a response as he continues to kiss her. _

_"Eli..."_

_He places his hand under her chin and looks into her eyes. _

_"This isn't you..." she whispers and sighs._

_"It isn't?"_

_Grace looks at him and she runs her hand through his hair. Then, stepping away from Eli, she sighs again._

_"This is the Eli who has no other girl to turn to. This is the Eli who is just filling in time until another hot chick comes along."_

_"What are you talkin' about?"_

_"You would never consider me as a potential girlfriend, Why would you when you could have anyone you wanted?"_

_Grace turns away from Eli and heads towards the staircase. _

_"That's not true," he says as he quickly catches up to her._

_"If it's not true, you have to prove it to me, Eli. I won't let you hurt me."_

_Eli takes hold of one of her hands. _

_"Then I won't. And I will prove to you that you're the one for me."_

_Eli's phone beeps and Grace looks at him, daring him to look at his message. He hesitates for a moment and then throws his phone on to the couch. _

_"I promise," he whispers and then kisses Grace on the forehead. _

_Grace shrugs her shoulders and walks upstairs to her bedroom. _

_Turning to the couch, Eli picks up his phone and looks at his message. Of all the moments in his life, why did he have to receive a message from Stacey? Why couldn't it have been Coop or Dave asking about the gig? Why wasn't it Jessie asking for a lift to a friends? Why did Stacey have to message him asking him for some "help with her car"? She knows that Eli is terrible with cars. She knows that he rejected her once before. When he said to Grace that she was the one for him, he wasn't lying. He really did believe that he was ready for a girl like her. A girl who could support him, care about him, respect his music and his dreams. All those other girls just wanted him so that they could make the other girls jealous and improve their popularity. _

_Then again, Stacey was known for having "no strings attached," and while Eli was ready to commit to Grace, she obviously wasn't ready, so why not have some fun in the mean time?_

_Eli presses the reply button and types "I'd b glad to help. B there soon."_

_With one quick glance up stairs, he pleaded for Grace to change her mind. He shrugs his shoulders and walks towards the garage. _


End file.
